Kitchen worktops in Hornchurch

Yes. The bulk of the stock is inter-war semis with the kitchen and dining room knocked together into an L, plus a rear extension on maybe half of them, giving a 3-4m main run with the sink under the original rear window. Above the High Street there are flats with small galley kitchens where the whole run is under 3m and every millimetre of the return matters. Underground loading has a height restriction, and a van with an A-frame on it is taller than the driver remembers. It is noted on the job sheet at template so the fitting crew inherit the answer rather than rediscovering it. The templater needs a proper stop, not a pause.

1930s semi, inter-war terrace, post-war semi and town-centre flat. The chimney breast in the corner has usually been left in place, so the run gains a return and two scribed ends. The kitchen is normally the original back room with a later side-return or rear extension bolted on, and that helps us: most pieces can go down the side alley and in through the back door in one length, so we can avoid joins that a front-door route would force. Sound carcasses are the one condition.

Residential roads are easy with dropped kerbs and side gates, but the High Street and Station Lane flats have loading restrictions, timed bays and first-floor stair access with a tight turn. The side passage is the measurement that matters, because a piece has to be carried flat down it and then turned in at the back door, and the turn is always tighter than the passage. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. That is agreed before a plumber is booked.

Worktop installation, worktop replacement and worktop templating, in that order. Extension kitchens are usually specified long before they are buildable, so the run lengths on the drawing and the run lengths in the room are different numbers. Where the window is fixed there is no second day to fall back on, so the prep list matters more than usual. The prep list is not optional. Half the borough's semis have the sink stuck under a low rear window, so we check the sill height before specifying an upstand — often there is not enough room for one.

An L can be mitred at the corner for a continuous look or butt-jointed over the gable, and the two are different money and different risk. Join positions and vein direction are marked on the template drawing before it leaves site. One datum for the whole room. A low sill over the sink run is what decides between an upstand and stone dying into a window board, and there is often less clearance than an upstand is tall. One measurement never describes it, which is why a tape reading taken before the visit rarely matches the template. Plotted, not estimated. Material runs from £110 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines rather than rolled into one figure.

Where someone is living in the house through the work, the strip-out and the fit are planned so the kitchen is out of use for a day and not a week. Floors and units are protected before anything comes through the door, communal or otherwise. Access for the whole slot, or a different day. Tell us the building when you book and the lift, the stair turn and any freeholder notice get built into the day rather than found on it.